KENSINGTON — The faithful of the Diocese of Brooklyn took time out during the busy days of Lent and the preparations for Holy Week to gather at St. Rose of Lima Church on April 7 and pay tribute to persecuted Christians from around the world.
Bishop Robert Brennan was the celebrant of the Mass, which honored the memory of those who suffered because of their religious beliefs in 2023 and 2024.
“It is more prevalent than one might imagine,” Bishop Brennan said. “We come together in a sense of solidarity and a sense of awareness.”
The persecuted victims — a list of names was provided at the Mass by the international humanitarian organization Aid to the Church in Need — included Father Paul Tatu Mothobi, a Catholic priest who was shot to death on a road outside Cape Town, South Africa, on April 27, 2024.
Another victim, Father Isaac Achi, was a Catholic priest who was burned to death on Jan. 15, 2023, after vandals set fire to his church, Sts. Peter and Paul, in Minni, Nigeria.
And there were four students who were killed in the bombing of a university gym in the Philippines where Mass was being celebrated on Dec. 2, 2023 — Janine Arenas, Junrey Barbante, Evangeline Aromin, and Riza Daniel.
The Mass was a part of the Courage in Faith initiative organized by Aid to the Church in Need. The group, which monitors oppression against Christians, holds the initiative every year a week before Holy Week to urge the faithful to pray for those who face threats, violence, and death in countries where religious freedom is nonexistent.
Bishop Brennan also urged the faithful to pray for the persecuted. “You can’t discount the power of prayer,” he said.
Edward Clancy, director of outreach for Aid to the Church in Need, listed China, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as countries where anti-Christian persecution is tolerated by governments.
St. Rose of Lima Church was the April 7 stop along the diocese’s Lenten Pilgrimage, the faith journey in which a different church is designated each day during Lent for the faithful to attend Mass, pray, and spend time in Eucharistic adoration.
Virginia Grande, who came to the Mass primarily for the Lenten Pilgrimage, said she was deeply moved to learn about the plight of the persecuted.
“I can go to church anywhere. I’m free to do that,” Grande said. “The thought that there are people in this world who can’t practice their religion freely is sad. I will keep them in my prayers.”
The Mass was part of Aid to the Church in Need’s international effort to raise awareness of those who suffer for their faith.
According to the organization, examples of persecution include the kidnappings and murders of priests in Nigeria, Egypt routinely denying building permits to Catholic churches, and Christians being afraid to carry Bibles or wear crosses in China.
Another humanitarian organization, Open Doors International, issued a report in January that found 54,780 Christians faced persecution for practicing their faith in 2024, and another 209,771 were displaced from their homes due to persecution.
It is not a coincidence that the Courage in Faith initiative takes place during Lent, Clancy said.
“It’s very important to connect it with our Lenten journey,” he explained. “What we have in people who suffer persecution for their faith, like Jesus promised that we would suffer for his name, we have in them a witness to the Way of the Cross in everyday life.”
The Mass was also intended to encourage the faithful to take action. Aid to the Church in Need suggested the following: Talk to lawmakers about the persecution faced by Christians, attend Masses in honor of a Christian in an oppressive country who cannot go to church, organize prayer vigils, and pray and light a red candle in memory of those who were murdered for their religious beliefs.
“In the United States … the freedom to practice your faith is the very first right laid out in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” Clancy said, “but in many places, that just isn’t so.”